Analyzing Presidential Twitter Use: Obama vs. Trump

Introduction

Goal:

Analyze how Barack Obama and Donald Trump used Twitter as communication tools during their presidencies.

Approach

Strategy:

• Sift through Archives, and data repositories
• Clean total amount of tweets
• Measure what portion of tweets contained links, then what portion contained gov links
• Compare styles of communication between administrations

Obama’s Twitter Usage

Key Findings - Joined Twitter in 2015, posting 321 tweets through his entire administration
- 42% contained links
- 12.5% directed users to government websites
- Common domains: whitehouse.gov, healthcare.gov, vote.gov

Trumps Twitter Usage

Key Findings - Tweeted over 23,000 times during his first term
- About 50% of tweets contained at least one link
- Only 5 tweets (0.02%) linked to .gov sites
- Most links pointed to media outlets or campaign-related pages, not government resources

Analysis
Trump used Twitter as a personal broadcast and media amplifier, rather than as a channel for directing people to official government information.

Comparing Obama and Trump’s Twitter Usage

Key Comparison Findings
- Obama: 321 tweets, 42% contained links, 12.5% led to .gov sites
- Trump: 23,000 tweets, 50% contained links, only 0.02% led to .gov sites
- Obama’s communication emphasized official information and public resources
- Trump’s Twitter focused on personal messaging, media reactions, and direct engagement

Thank You!

Sources:

Refrence 1 : The data used in this analysis comes from the National Archives, which maintains a full record of Barack Obama’s tweets during his presidency. The dataset was downloaded as a CSV file and stored locally for analysis.

Refrence 2: Mark Hershey compiled the dataset of Trump’s Tweets and they are stored in his github linked below. Original Dataset for Trumps Tweets

Original Source: “Archived White House Websites and Social Media | Barack Obama Presidential Library.” Obamalibrary.gov, 2017, www.obamalibrary.gov/digital-research-room/archived-white-house-websites-and-social-media. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.

“CompleteTrumpTweetsArchive/Data/RealDonaldTrump_in_office.csv at Master · MarkHershey/CompleteTrumpTweetsArchive.” GitHub, 2025, github.com/MarkHershey/CompleteTrumpTweetsArchive/blob/master/data/realDonaldTrump_in_office.csv. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.